Master of Arts in Ecology Futures
's Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
DURATION
2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
31 May 2025*
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
EUR 9,680 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* EEA applicants | 01/05/2025 non-EEA applicants
** non-EEA nationality | EEA or Dutch nationality: EUR 2,530
Introduction
Ecology Futures is a graduation track of the Master of Arts in Fine Art & Design at Avans. The two-year programme focuses on how bio art and bio design can create alternative futures. In which present-day ecological concerns are addressed.
Ecology Futures states clearly what we stand for: not a singular future, but a plural one. Not an individual being disconnected from others, but rather an assemblage of many entities. Living, decaying, human, other-than-human, connections forming and re-forming as circumstances warrant. This alternative future needs education that draws from many domains.
That's why Ecology Futures is trans- and multi-disciplinary. You learn how to work with living materials in a laboratory, read theoretical and historical texts that support your practice and engage with life outside the classroom through hands-on fieldwork. Manipulating the analogue and the digital to realize your projects.
Your time in Ecology Futures prepares you to address difficult problems, not only related to ecology but any domain that requires the input of multiple skill sets.
You will have access to the Material Incubator Lab of the Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design, and Technology (CARADT). This is a unique feature of our programme where you develop laboratory skills that support your practice-led artistic research.
Programme Features
- Explore multiple futures through an ecological lens
- Work with multidisciplinary methods in art and design
- Learn laboratory skills in an art-science context
- Do practice-led artistic research
Ideal Students
Ecology Futures is open to you if you have a practice related to the topics of our pathway. This often includes artists, designers, writers, and curators. But also sociologists, ecologists and others from the social sciences. It is expected of you that you have a willingness to open your practice to new trajectories.
Career Opportunities
What can you become with Ecology Futures? The graduation track is trans- and multi-disciplinary and brings together the intersections of ecological studies. This allows you to forge your own path within the multiple fields of art, science, and technology after graduation.
Within the track, you are encouraged to open your mind to the entanglement of the world. As such, you might find yourself working in jobs that were unimaginable when you first started the programme.
We have had students who have had a residency with the FIBER Festival, who works as an instructional assistant at the art academy in The Hague, who are preparing exhibitions for presentations at Blue City in Rotterdam, who have created self-managed artistic collaborations across Europe and who have taken their interest in the intersection of art and food into the culinary world.
We also have students who have been awarded fellowships from major organisations such as the Mondriaan Fund. Along the way, we also give you the knowledge to live and work as a professional artist and designer, which is useful for whatever future path you choose.
Potential Careers After the Programme
Artist
You work towards opening people's understanding of ecological concerns.
Biodesigner
You develop new materials and techniques that reduce society's dependence on items made from fossil fuels.
Instructor
You share your knowledge developed through your practical and theoretical work with others.
Curriculum
The graduation track Ecology Futures is delivered across 24 months, comprised of 4 semesters and 6 units of study. Each unit ends with an assessment correlated to the learning outcomes.
Year 1
In the first year, you focus on developing new skills, and methods of research, and setting up your research program for your artistic practice. Ecology Futures offers you modules and tutorials to explore how to contextualize, expand, and integrate your work within the professional domain. You additionally have extensive time to focus on your own research. At the end of each semester, there is an assessment of your individual studio practice. All education takes place at the Avans location.
The Semesters
- 1. Context & Skills Learning
- 2. Co-research and External Enquiry in the Field
Important Courses
- Growing Cultures
- Cartographies of the Vanishing Now
- Artistic Mindscape
- Research seminar: 'Climate was never just about the weather'
- Independent studio practice
Year 2
In the second year, you focus on writing your thesis and materializing the outcomes of your research. You present your final research at the Graduation Research Hub and at the Graduation Exhibition. At the end of each semester, there is an assessment of your individual studio practice. Education takes place in a hybrid programme. It is possible to study remotely or to combine it with residencies or research activities abroad.
The Semesters
- Semester 3 Consolidation of Practice-led Research
- Semester 4 Graduation Phase
Important Courses
- Rethinking the Artist Economy
- Research Seminar: 'Climate was never just about the weather'
- Independent studio practice
Admissions
Program Tuition Fee
Gallery
Program Admission Requirements
Show your commitment and readiness for Grad school by taking the GRE - the most broadly accepted exam for graduate programs internationally.